The Dance Committee
'' The Dance Committee ''is the fourteenth book in the Middle School Experience series. It talks about the Autumn Dance and Alex's desire to make it better than it was last year. Alex and her friends have joined the dance committee to come up with ideas for the Autumn Dance. Alex thinks the committee will be fun, but that was before she learned that Clarissa Simpson would join the committee and demand that everything should go her way. Clarissa's selfishness annoys Alex and the rest of the committee. If the committee can't agree on anything, will the dance be a disaster? Summary On a Monday morning, Alex is talking to Leah and Ellie about their plans for the rest of their fall semester at Lakewood when Ellie brings up the Autumn Dance, the annual school dance. Alex is immediately displeased by the conversation because the Autumn Dance was not a good event for her. Ellie, who is in the student council, informs Leah and Alex that the student council is converting into a dance committee for the dance and offer Leah and Alex to join the committee. Though Alex has her reservations about the Autumn Dance, she decides to join the committee to see if she can improve the Autumn Dance experience at Lakewood. The next day, Alex attends a dance committee meeting with Ellie and Regina. To her dismay, some of the committee members there include Clarissa and Marylin. The meeting begins with Vice-Principal Clayton giving an introductory speech, and the eighth grade president and student in charge of the committee, Mackenzie, asking the committee for ideas. At first, the theme ideas are hit or miss, and a few of the committee members trade insults with each other about their choices. However, some ideas are well-received, such as a nineties theme created by Robbie, Jeremy, and Dominick, and a Willy Wonka theme suggested by Vanessa. Unfortunately, Clarissa thinks all the ideas are lame and comes up with a theme surrounding fall romance, which is a hit to most of the girls, and a miss to Alex and a few other students. Alex suggests a cartoon theme based on nineties cartoons. Some of the committee members find her idea interesting, but most of the members find it babyish, and the Popular Sensations ridicule Alex, prompting her to almost start a physical confrontation. After some tough feedback on her theme, Alex vows to work hard on it before the next meeting. On the morning announcements, the students are informed that the dance committee had narrowed down the theme ideas to five, and Alex is surprised but thrilled that her theme was one of the chosen ones; Clarissa's theme was also chosen. At the next meeting, Mackenzie informs everyone that they will be voting on a theme the following afternoon, and today's meeting is a pitch for everyone to give out their ideas. Vanessa, Robbie's group, and an eighth grade give their pitches and receive feedback on them. Clarissa's theme receives positive feedback from her friends and followers, but Alex and a few other students share their doubts about it, which annoys her. Alex presents her theme ideas, but after harsh feedback and bullying from the Popular Sensations and the eighth graders (including Mackenzie), Alex begins to feel less confident about her theme. After the meeting, Alex vents to her friends about her issue, but when Robbie admits that her theme is not that great, Alex is angry and crushed. When she arrives home, she is in a terrible mood, but after remembering Regina's words from an earlier conversation about creativity, she begins to feel motivated again to change up her theme and present it again so the committee members would approve of it. At the next meeting, Mackenzie announces that the final decision for the theme will be made the following Monday. Before the vote, each theme creator gives one last summary of their themes. Alex presents her finalized theme, and though the popular kids scoff at it, it receives more positive feedback, and Alex feels confident about the vote. However, her dreams are crushed when she learns that Clarissa's romance theme won and throws a fit before storming to her homeroom class. In homeroom, Alex rants to Jessie about the theme and sulks as Clarissa's theme is announced on the morning announcements. At the next meeting, Mackenzie is happy to start buying materials to decorate the gym with, but to her dismay, the Popular Sensations seem bored, and soon, Clarissa tells everyone that she and her friends will accept or reject ideas for the decorations. When Mackenzie tells her that everyone needs to be involved, Clarissa snaps at her. The Popular Sensations keep rejecting everyone's ideas for the dance, and decides to hand out lists to everyone detailing what they want, which does not go over well with the committee. Alex and Regina begin to have a bad feeling about this year's dance. Two days before the dance, the committee goes to the gym to start putting up decorations for the dance, and the Popular Sensations are more tyrannical than ever. When Regina tries to show them her redesigned layout for the theme, they reject it and rip it to shreds. Clarissa hands Alex a pile of construction paper and a bowl to cut confetti in, but after a while, Alex realizes that Clarissa purposely gave her a tedious and useless duty. While Alex works, she notices Clarissa screaming at the other members for not doing what they want. Eventually, Clarissa walks up to Alex and tells her that she is cutting the confetti wrong. The two get into an argument, and Clarissa reveals that Mackenzie showed her the results of the theme vote and showed her that three times the committee members voted for the romance theme over the cartoon theme. This makes Alex furious and as a result, she hurls the bowl and scissors at Clarissa; the bowl scrapes her forehead and causes a bleeding gash. When Vice-Principal Clayton rushes into the room after Clarissa's screaming, she blames Alex for the incident. Alex, who realizes that she will never be heard at Lakewood, curses out the committee before stomping out of the room. At home, Alex decides she is not going to the dance and is instead going to go to a Halloween party with her sister. Regina calls her and tries to cheer her up and commends her for standing up to Clarissa. Alex feels a little bit better after Regina's call, but still decides that she is not going to the dance. The next day, Alex and Clarissa are called into Vice-Principal Clayton's office. They are scolded for their behavior yesterday, and Vice-Principal Clayton threatens to ban Clarissa from the dance if she doesn't stop being mean-spirited to the other committee members. However, she forces Alex to attend the dance so she can help out with the song requests and threatens in-school-suspension when Alex refuses to do the job. At the next meeting, the decorating process is going smoothly, but the Popular Sensations are still yelling at the students over tiny things. Finally, Alex tells Clarissa off and tells her that she had made the entire dance about herself and she will not stand for it. The other committee members agree with her and continue to decorate the gym how they want; the Popular Sensations decides to leave. Vice-Principal Clayton walks into the room, and notices that the members are much happier and claims that this year's Autumn Dance will be the best one in years. Now that Alex is more optimistic about the dance, she begins to enjoy herself. The decorations are great, the food and music is better, and overall, everything is a step up from last year's dance. The Popular Sensations arrive to the dance for a short time and try to start trouble, but they leave when they realize that no one wants to deal with them. By the end of the night, Alex concludes that this year's Autumn Dance is better by far. Characters (in order of appearance) * Leah Harrison * Alex Sanders * Ellie Jackson * Regina Daniels * Vice-Principal Clayton * Mackenzie Rivera * Kenny Vitali * Clarissa Simpson * Gabby Evans * Robbie James * Kaylee Danes * Whitney Zimmerman * Dominick Taylor * Grant Carpenter * Vanessa Lopez * Jared Rosario * Samantha Nevels * Kiara Hunt * Marylin Roberts * Jeremy Parker * Anderson Moffitt * Kelsey Cooper * Jessie Sanchez * Arabella Wilson * Chloe Winters * Divya Tikku * Yadira Uddin * Carrie Sanders * Daphne Carson * Christian Andrews Trivia *This was rewritten four times. First edition, 2008. Fourth edition, 2017. Category:Stories